World-News

500,000 Iraqis Fled Fighting In 2007: It said the United States accepted few, just over half the 3,000 it had promised to resettle by the end of September.

http://tinyurl.com/6ostqr



World Refugee Day: U.S. Criticized For Failing to Help Iraqi Refugees

Over the past five years the U.S. has resettled just 5,000 Iraqis. Compare that to Sweden-a country of only nine million people-which resettled 18,000 Iraqis last year alone.

http://www.democracynow.org/2008/6/20/world_refugee_day_us_criticized_for


From Information Clearing House

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Iraqi Refugees, America's Shame
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/20/9773/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=refugees
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Medea+Benjamin

http://groups.google.de/group/freepage-news/t/283feb5af44f7b?hl=en



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=peak+oil

http://www.ufppc.org/content/view/7612/


Informant: jensenmk

From ufpj-news

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Claiming the Spoils: Big Oil Returns to Iraq
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/19/9730/

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Big Oil Firms Ready to Sign Agreements With Iraq

Ernesto Londono and Simone Baribeau, of The Washington Post: "Iraq is preparing to award contracts to several Western energy companies to help develop its vast oil resources, allowing them to consolidate their positions in a country that has seemed less threatening in recent months as security has improved. The two-year, no-bid contracts will be awarded to companies that have been advising the Iraqi Oil Ministry in recent years, said Asim Jihad, a spokesman for the ministry. He said officials expect that U.S.-based Exxon Mobil and Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, France's Total and British oil company BP will secure the biggest contracts."

http://www.truthout.org/article/big-oil-firms-ready-sign-agreements-with-iraq



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Big+Oil
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Exxon
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Chevron
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Andrew+E.+Kramer

By Ramzy Baroud

Co-opting the UN has helped secure temporary legitimacy to the occupation. The international body, once rendered irrelevant, became a major hub for American diplomacy seeking to legitimise its occupation in a country that refuses to concede. Even willing Iraqi leaders, perfectly rehearsed elections and mass suppressions have failed to bring the desired stability and validation.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20122.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Ramzy+Baroud

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/06/18/9712/



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Jonathan+Steele

For The New York Times, James Risen reports: "The Army official who managed the Pentagon’s largest contract in Iraq says he was ousted from his job when he refused to approve paying more than $1 billion in questionable charges to KBR, the Houston-based company that has provided food, housing and other services to American troops."

http://www.truthout.org/article/army-overseer-tells-ouster-over-kbr-stir



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=KBR
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=James+Risen

Democrats in the Congress, who came to power last year on a call to end the combat in Iraq, will soon give President George W. Bush the last war-funding bill of his presidency without any of the conditions they sought for withdrawing U.S. troops, congressional aides said on Monday.

http://tinyurl.com/633mvb


From Information Clearing House



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=war+funding
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+withdraw

By Amnesty International

According to the latest estimates of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the number of Iraqis who have fled their homes has now reached 4.7 million, the highest since the US-led invasion of Iraq and the subsequent internal armed conflict.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20106.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+refugees

By Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez

Veteran reporter Patrick Cockburn broke the story of Bush's secret Iraq plan. He explains its terrible implications for Iraqi sovereignty.

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article20102.htm



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Patrick+Cockburn
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Amy+Goodman
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Juan+Gonzalez

Tom Engelhardt writes for TomDispatch: "... in the last five-plus years, untold billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent on the construction and upgrading of [US mega-bases in Iraq]. When asked back in the fall of 2003, only months after Baghdad fell to U.S. troops, Lt. Col. David Holt, the Army engineer then 'tasked with facilities development' in Iraq, proudly indicated that 'several billion dollars' had already been invested in those fast-rising bases."

http://www.truthout.org/article/the-greatest-story-never-told-finally-us-mega-bases-iraq-make-news



http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Iraq+bases
http://freepage.twoday.net/search?q=Tom+Engelhardt